Monday, June 19, 2017

Host to a Xeno-parasite

I actually got to play my new Scourge army a couple of weekends ago. That was eye-opening! To have transports that can reach the mid-line on T1 is incredible to me. I never realized how SLOOOOWwwww PHR are until I started zipping around the table as an alien host.
It was a 999pt Skirmish game where I played the following army against the excellent mensch, Lucas the Beard.

The speed is amazing and allows for some forgiveness in deployment and those general positioning mistakes that crop up. That said, they aren't durable. That will take some getting used to. It seems to be a lot of throwing units at the enemy in the correct order to make sure he kills the right unit, rather than the ones you need to win with.

Lucas and I played what was supposed to be a short Intel gathering game (no rolling for FPs and Bombs) until one of our other buddies, Ian, showed up to play a 2v2 with us and Steve. When Ian did show up, we decided to continue the game and let he and Steve duke it out as it was already later than expected.

The Corruptors are sooo muuuuch funnnnn! Especially when gathering Intel. The Intel denial potential in them is truly jaw-dropping. Scoot them up, shoot the 'Worm base into the building, and then move to the next building! By turn 5, I had 6 buildings at the center-line or beyond with a base of Razorworms in them. It made it hard for Lucas to collect because, as the 'Worms got there first, they were the occupier. The 'Worms collect their Intel and wait for the yummy humans to show up to clear the scaly monsters from the building so that the monkeys can then collect their Intel. This would effectively delay any collection because the 'Worms had to be dealt with before the enemy Intel was grabbed. Very powerful tactically.

That allowed me to collect my backfield Intel via my Warriors without worrying about making contact with his superior number of Resistance troops. Plus, as he was rolling with Jacksons in a Lifthawk, his collection effort couldn't spread out much and still maintain their speed.

I didn't get to use the Desolator to full effect as I had to make sure Lucas shot at it rather than downing a Corruptor or two. When I was able to use it, I rolled poorly and had little effect. There was no Commander inside, so it wasn't like that was a great loss.

It was also very nice having AA-capable transports. The Harbingers didn't do much, mostly due to horrible rolling on my part. It was great having a transport that had a 'real weapon' on it. If only I could roll in a normal way. I was a bit disappointed in the Vampire, but as an add-on unit that soaks up those last few points, that beasty was fun to have around.

I'm not super impressed with the Scourge walking tanks.. But, that could be due to my bad rolling. I did get to use the claws against one of his Hannibals. That was very fun even though I didn't actaully damage the tank. I forgot they had that weapon and when I declared the attack on the Hannibals, Lucas was just as surprised as I was. It was just plain fun trying to punch a tank, too.

This was one of those games where all of my ground units save for one Hunter were dead at games' end, but I still managed to pull off a 7-6 win. Mostly due to the Corruptors.

I'm enjoying the Scourge, for sure! A very different force than what I'm used to.

For balance, I think it's the best. The rules are concise and updated pretty often, sometimes twice a year! Depending on the points level and the mission, games can go from 1 hour to 4 (especially if you have some beers along the way). If you want a demo game, maybe I can find you a local Hawk representative (aka Talon) and they can demo it for you.